The Programmatic Haves And Have Nots

By now, you may be familiar with the November 2013 study that said 85% of advertisers and 72% of publishers are using
programmatic. Those figures are high, and surely encouraging for anyone invested in the space.

But while it seems like everyone, everywhere is using programmatic for media buying and selling,
that doesn’t mean they know what they are doing.

On Tuesday I listened in to a WebEx event titled “A Publisher’s Guide to Programmatic Media Selling and Buying: Making
Programmatic Work For You,” hosted by MediaCrossing and Gleanster, a market research firm.

The presentation was moderated by Ian Michiels, principal and managing director of Gleanster,
and featured Bill Lederer, chairman and CEO of MediaCrossing.

There were over 50 people listening in and participating in the event, and I’m assuming most of these were publishers.

When polled, 44% of them said they have little to no understanding of programmatic media-buying. Note: not everyone responded to the poll -- and the purpose of the event was to teach
publishers about programmatic, so it would make sense that a lot of them feel uncomfortable with programmatic.

However, if anywhere near 44% of publishers truly don’t understand
programmatic, what does that say about the industry?

I reached out to Lederer after the event, and he believes the results are “clear evidence of how early we are in the development of
our industry.” He added, “Outside of the top 100 ad-supported publishers, smaller publishers need programmatic education and programmatic resources. This industry is quickly devolving into
the programmatic haves and have nots.”

It's just great to see RTB taking its place at the forefront of this discussion surrounding advertising/mobile. We're looking at the future of mobile advertising here and more companies need to follow the lead and pace set by social/advertising companies smart enough to focus on RTB today. Those that wait will have to play catch-up. And they may end up too far behind to ever really matter. Great article by Airpush on this subject - http://www.airpush.com/what-is-mobile-rtb-and-why-should-i-care/